More From Thursday at Schenectady

Today’s game is where Jonathan Lack was stymied in his ambitions to play once more in the Schenectady Finals.

[Event "SCC Ch Prelim B"]
[Site "SCC"]
[Date "2009"]
[White "Sells, P"]
[Black "Lack, J"]

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. Nc3 Nf6
4. e5 Nfd7
5. f4 c5
The players used a minute each to get here.

6. Nf3 Nc6
7. Be3 Be7
Morozevich likes this move and has played it with success. Ivanchuk, Shirov and Korchnoi among many other 2600-2700 GM’s prefer 7..., cxd5. Bareev and Yusupov have a fondness for 7..., Qb6. The Black Queen can be posted to b6 a la Nimzovitch’s suggestion at a couple of points in this line.

8. dxc5 Bxc5
We are now away from mainstream theory. Most common here is for Black to recapture with the Knight. Of course there is no burning need to recapture the pawn immediately. Black can castle, the advanced c-pawn can be recovered at will for the moment. From a general positional point view, trading off the better of Black’s Bishops for White’s worse one is questionable. Lack must be betting that his Queen and Knight pair will create some potent threats.

9. Qd2 Qb6
Placing the Queen on b6 does pressure the center, but it is not the best for making a direct attack on the White King. The games I examined while writing this post showed the Black attacks making the most progress sent the Q-side pawns forward before obstructing them with the Lady setting in their front.

10. Bxc5 Nxc5
11. O-O-O O-O
12. h4 ….
Sells, per his usual style, has ideas of preparing in the natural theater for White, the K-side. The moves he plays in this small sequence tell of a build up to an attack with pieces and pawns unless Black changes the situation in some way. The computer sees the game as almost level through this part of the contest.

Jacob Aagaard wrote about a game of his with a similar situation on the board. It was the game Aagaard - Brynell, Stockholm, 2004. In that game the Black pawns were at a6 and b5 and the Queen at home on d8. According to Aagaard theory says things are about equal. Brynell mistakenly put his Nd7 on c5, then Aagaard’s f-pawn advanced to sacrifice itself on f5. The game ended in under thirty moves with a flashy win for White. All this is noted to make the point how delicately things are balanced in these kinds of French Defenses.

12.… Bd7
13. Rh3 Rfc8
14. Rg3 Nb4
15. Nd4 Nxa2+?
Wrong very probably. More principled is 15..., Ba4!?; when there are complicated attacking possibilities for both sides to calculate. Alternatively, 15..., Na4; is possible. Even the cautious 15..., a6; delaying for a move sending a minor piece to a4 seems to be better than the game move. The text starts the ball rolling a tactical flurry that was not accurately calculated by Jonathan.

16. Nxa2 Ne4
17. Qe1 Nxg3
18. Qxg3 ….
The short melee is over and both of the Black Knights are gone. So much for the idea that an attack could be whipped up by the Queen and Knights. Black is left with the obviously worse minor piece. The game definitely favors White now. What idea had the fertile mind of Mr. Lack come up with to justify this change in the nature of the position?

18.… Qa5
19. Kb1 a6
20. Nc3 Rc7
Black must be plotting an Exchange sacrifice on c3. Sells has replaced the Rg3 with his Queen. If Black is not very active on the Q-side, White will advance the h-pawn or the f-pawn or both to make dark squared holes around the Black King.

21. f5 …..
In a position quite similar to Aagaard’s cited above, the same f4-f5 advance puts great pressure on the Black position. A interesting and telling lesson for the 1 e4, players among us who face the French often; in the 2..., Nf6; 3 e5, lines there are positional ideas that come up repeatedly in slightly different guises. This is also a lesson the Francophiles out there, f4-f5 can do bad things to your chances.

21.…. exf5
With the help of my computer it seems Black has to play the ultra-cautious 21..., Kh8; here, even so, Black has the worst of it.

22. Nb3 ….
This move is quite forceful. It forces the Exchange sacrifice to retain the d-pawn.

Along about here I had to reconstruct some of the moves. I copied the moves from Phil’s score sheet in a hurried few minutes after the game ended as the club rooms were being made ready for closing. It is possible an error crept in. Although after some years of reconstructing score sheets, and with some helpful tuition from Bill Townsend who has a world of experience doing so, the later moves in the game make sense and fit the reconstruction.

23.… Rxc3
23. Qxc3 Qxc3
24. bxc3 Bc6
At this place in the proceedings White had 19 minutes remaining and Black 24 out of 100 with a five second delay per move. No one can say the players rushed things. The balance of the game went at a very quick tempo.

25. Nd4 Re8
26. Nxc6 ….
The move 26 Bxa6, is slightly better, although Black can get a transposition to the game with 26..., Rxe5. The attraction of 26 Bxa6, is it offers Black a chance to go wrong with 26..., bxa6. White’s advantage is increasing.

26.… bxc6
27. Bxa6 Rxe5
28. Bb7 Re6
29. c4 h6
30. cxd5 cxd5
31. Bxd5 Re7
32. Bf3 ….
A small quibble here. Why not 32 c4? The advance of the c-pawn will limit the Black pieces and make resistance futile. The game move may have been motivated by the thought; Black is on the hook now, give him no chance to wiggle off.

32.… g5
33. hxg5 hxg5
34. Rd5 g4
35. Bd1 Re1
36. Kb2 Rf1
37. c4 Rf2+
38. Kc3 Rxg2
39. Rxf5 g3
More resistance can be had with 39..., Kf8; not that it will change the outcome. But, if you’re going to make a stubborn battle out of a bad endgame missing the better move hurts the intention. White now takes advantage of the opportunity to clip another pawn putting the game into deeper cold storage.

40. Bf3 Rg1
41. Bd5 Kg7
42. Rxf7+ Kg6
43. Rf8 Kg5
44. Kb4 Rb1+
45. Kc5 Rb2
1-0
The game went on for a few more moves out nothing more than momentum. The Rook and Bishop will always control g2, the deadly ground the Black g-pawn must cross to make a difference, while the White c-pawn is impossible to stop in its march to the Queening square.
A very smooth performance by Phil.

With luck tomorrow there will be time enough before I go off to the dentist for some need repair work to post my game with Alan LeCours. I am very interested to see just where I went wrong in that game. Alan's preparation was impressive, and as far as I can tell, he never had the worse game. A nice performance by an old rival and chess friend of many years.